1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a solid or liquid pharmaceutic material or composition having antimicrobial or antibacterial, anti-nematode and/or plant-cell activating activities, and strains of chitinolytic microorganisms or bacteria for producing such a pharmaceutic composition. More particularly, this invention is concerned with an antibacterial, anti-nematode and/or plant-cell activating composition consisting of a highly acidic culture liquid or a solid culture material, which is obtained by solid-liquid separation of a culture material which is prepared by incubating or cultivating a strain or strains of chitinolytic microorganisms or bacteria on a culture medium containing chitin or chitosan and to which water is added before the liquid or solid separation.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Various methods have been proposed for decomposing chitin or chitosan by using chitinolytic bacteria or microorganisms. These methods find applications in processing the integument of insects and crustaceans. Studies in this field have been accelerated by a recent recognition that cultures obtained by such chitinolytic microorganisms incubated on chitin or chitosan, and products produced during the cultivation of the microorganisms have useful pharmacological or pharmaceutic activities.
Having the above recognition, the inventors named in this application made an extensive research in an effort to find in nature the microorganisms which have high ability of decomposing chitin or chitosan and high ability of producing enzymes which decompose or lyse chitin or chitosan. The research resulted in finding strains of chitinolytic bacteria which exhibit a unique behavior depending upon pH of a culture medium. The inventors discovered that a culture liquid obtained from a culture material prepared by incubating such strains of bacteria (mircoorganisms) on a chitin or chitosan medium has excellent antibacterial, anti-nematode, and/or plant cellactivating activities.